To start off my blog I just wanted to write a short paragraph of what travel means to me.
By the way, welcome to my blog! :-)
Definitely one of my favorite quotes about travel:
"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends."
-Maya Angelou
- Travel, to me, is much more about the gorgeous architecture and stunning natural wonders. Sure, that's an important factor that draws us into travel but there is a much deeper meaning that travel results in. I found that the more I travel, the less I see myself and my country as a separate entity from the rest of the world. Before I began traveling, I viewed the world as "them and us". Until engaging myself in the world, I never realized how flawed that perspective was. The world certainly gets both smaller and larger the more you travel. Smaller, in that we begin to realize that while our customs may be different we are all human on the inside. We all laugh, cry, play, sin and each find a unique way to live our lives in the utmost significance to the world around us. We begin to come to the realization that we are, in fact, in this together. Bigger, in that as you continue to travel you simultaneously begin to realize the enormous density in the world and the complex yet interesting places the world has to offer. Also, I found that when you travel you naturally establish a personal connection with the land you visited. You feel intertwined with things that are happening in that particular country. Subsequently, we naturally exhibit more care and passionate interest in world events and current affairs when we travel. I found that when I returned from a particular country I was much more interested when the mention of a country's name appeared on the news screen than I normally would have been. That being said, the more we travel the more we become engaged in places we previously thought of as unimportant and insignificant. This makes travel an imperative aspect in our lives. There are thousands of different stereotypes of other countries due to various factors like media bias and political quarrels and discontent between nations. I found some people go ahead and blindly believe these stereotypes without even traveling to the said country. Rather, let us actually talk to the people of a country and unravel the truths that one might not get via partial media exposure. We will truly never know until we actually go "there" and meet "them" and begin to contextualize the core truths of an issue and find a mutual understanding that we all are surviving in this world together and the best thing to do would be to see every person equally as a human being. At least, this is what I get out of travel. While what you get out of it may be different, there's no denying that travel plays a huge role in our lives.
